The Blowback of Disconnection Used Wrongly

The policy of forced disconnection not only destroys families; it harms Scientology.

Another story about disconnection is making national news. Long-time Scientologist and OT VIII Sara (Lister) Goldberg was declared to be a suppressive person (“declared”) for refusing to disconnect from her son who had been declared for going on the Internet and connecting with former Church members who are critical of Church management. Sara’s daughter, a Scientologist and mother of a child, then disconnected from her mother and brother.

Once again, the Church denied publicly that the policy exists, falsely claiming that the policy is voluntary, the choice of its members.

All Scientologists know the truth.

There are serious consequences for members who do not disconnect from persons who have been declared: those members can be declared themselves, just as Sara was declared for her refusal to disconnect from her declared son.

So the decision to disconnect is voluntary only in the sense that a person voluntarily decides to turn over his wallet to a man who holds a gun to his head.

In lying about the policy of forced disconnection, the Church further individuates from a society it wishes to enter and become an integral part of. Members who forward or defend the Church’s position are “put on a withhold” from their friends, families, and acquaintances; and they, too, withdraw and individuate.

Scientologists who have been trained in Scientology’s basic principles know this mechanism. Those who have received auditing (i.e., Scientology counseling) based on this technical subject have personal awareness of it.

Besides, PR Series 2 requires the Church to “NEVER USE LIES IN PR” because “[a]ll lies will dead end some day.”

That day has come. Sara Goldberg is just one of many who have recently gone to the media with her tale of family oppression wreaked by the policy of forced disconnection.

Disconnection Was The Wrong Action

The basic principle is not disconnection, but rather “handle or disconnect.” LRH cancelled the condition of disconnection [in 1968 – read here and listen here] because it had been abused by persons who failed to handle situations which could have been handled, either due to laziness or irresponsibility, “thereby creating situations even worse than the original ones because it was the wrong action.”[1]

Disconnection was the wrong action for both Sara’s son, Nick Lister, and for her.Neither of them were “antagonistic to Scientology or its tenets.” The actual policy calls for a person to handle “the other person’s antagonism” or, “when all attempts to handle have failed,” to then and only then disconnect.[2]

The Church could have “handled” Sara by simply allowing her to maintain a connection to her son. Sara could have “handled” her son merely by obtaining his agreement to keep his opinions to himself when in her presence.

Delving deeper into the situation, the Church could have handled Nick by addressing his concerns about the allegations of former high-ranking Sea Org members.

The disconnections ordered in Sara’s case created “situations even worse than the original.” At first Sara ordered her son out of the house, which resulted in him threatening to take his own life. Sara wisely reconsidered and averted a tragedy. After Sara was declared for not disconnecting she went on the Internet herself, was appalled at what she saw, and then went to the media with her story.

All this because the Church irresponsibly failed to properly “handle” accusations of internal wrongdoing by former high-ranking Sea Org members.

And this gets to the root of the problem we discuss on this website. The Church needs to conduct internal investigations independent of David Miscavige, the person accused of wrongdoing. As we point out, Miscavige has usurped all the checks and balances intended by LRH, including, but not limited to: (1) the jurisdiction of ED International as the convening authority for all worldwide matters – which includes Miscavige and staff of RTC, and (2) the independence of the trustees and general directors of CST to whom LRH entrusted the power to investigate or eliminate RTC if it abused its power. Therefore, it is first necessary for those terminals, and others, to put their hats on and fulfill their duties.

Attacking and declaring members and former members who speak out against internal corruption is a wrong action. The practice has created a situation far worse than the original. The correct actions are to implement LRH checks and balances, cancel again the policy of disconnection, investigate the accusations of internal corruption and abuses, and then handle what is found.

Honesty and transparency will win out, not secret policies and practices, lies, and attacks on Scientologists who seek to stamp out internal corruption.

The Basic Lie, Church Management under Miscavige’s leadership defends a completely perverted and corrupted application of Tech and Policy that precipitates a condition of antagonism by wrong targeting first Sara’s son. When that failed, Sara herself was wrong targeted. All this then leads to a dwindling spiral of more antagonism from those still inside (e.g. Sara’s Daughter). The Church’s walls of corruption toward those who are newly antagonistic from a newly discovered awareness of this corruption of “Basic Scientology Tenants.” All this results in more antagonism from those already out and the media capitalizes on all the conflict. Then more desperate measures and antagonism from those inside who are still defending what isn’t Scientology at all.

The saddest part to me in all this conflict is that it creates such a distaste and condition of Confusion from all involved that many of those who had once hoped for the benefits Scientology promised them abandon it all together for a new purpose of not only the destruction of The Church but the destruction of Scientology itself and even it’s founder L. Ron Hubbard. A true Games Condition of hate begetting hate.

Of course the underlying factors in all this is the lowering of perception of all involved because of their own Overts and Withholds against Scientology Tenants (including the validity of Disconnection when appropriate) that gives life to The Evil from both sides – the denial of self and all other Dynamics (truth) And other factors such as an attempt to somehow feel more comfortable with Out-points (alteration of Scientology) by explaining away those out-points (wrong targeting Scientology and LRH). All this being a non-confront of out-points – a non-confront of Evil, therefore it persists in time with no As-isness, and on and on it goes.

The only good news in all this is that Scientology (because it’s only an idea) will never be destroyed and will live on just as sure as the sun rises tomorrow. And by its own standard application of those beings it lives within, eventually as-is all of the above.

The Basic Lie, Church Management under Miscavige’s leadership defending a completely perverted and corrupted application of Tech and Policy precipitating a condition of antagonism by wrong targeting first Sara’s son, this failing then Sara herself. All this then leading to a dwindling spiral of more antagonism from those inside (i.e. Sara’s Daughter) the Church’s walls of corruption toward those who are now newly antagonistic from a newly discovered awareness of this corruption of “Basic Scientology Tenants” All this then resulting in more antagonism from those already out and the media who capitalize on all the conflict. And then more desperate measures and antagonism of those inside still defending what isn’t Scientology at all.

The saddest part to me in all this conflict is that it creates such a distaste and condition of Confusion from all involved that many of those who had once hoped for the benefits Scientology promised abandon it all together for a new purpose of not only the destruction of The Church but the destruction of Scientology itself and even it’s founder L. Ron Hubbard. A true Games Condition of hate begetting hate.

Of course the underlying factors in all this is the lowering of perception of all involved because of their own Overts and Withholds against Scientology Tenants (including the validity of Disconnection when appropriate) that gives life to The Evil from both sides – the denial of self and all other Dynamics (truth) And other factors such as an attempt to somehow feel more comfortable with Out-points (alteration of Scientology) by explaining away those out-points (wrong targeting Scientology and LRH) All this being a non-confront of out-points – a non-confront of Evil, therefore it persisting in time with no As-isness, and on and on it goes.

The only good news in all this is that Scientology (because it’s only an idea) will never be destroyed and will just as surely as the sun rises tomorrow live on. And by its own standard application of those beings it lives within, eventually as-is all of the above.

This is one of the best articles I have read on the abuses of disconnection as it steers away from extremes and looks at the area intelligently and sanely. And most importantly viewing it from a Scientology viewpoint.
Disconnection has been a very effective tool for DM to control his parishioners with and I happen to know he has succeeded to some degree in that there are those who will not do anything as they are afraid of their family disconnecting. Fortunately, Sara was not paralyzed and did expose this insanity. It just takes a few to lead to DMs undoing.

My great hope is that when DM is forced into the light of day and we get the chance to fix this, that the existing leadership at that time will start the ball rolling with a General Amnesty for everyone who has left or been declared since DM took over.

The history of “disconnection” in Scn is a fascinating one and is available on the internet and several websites such as Scn.cult.com. It was originally stated that if one was a member of a suppressive GROUP (like the Nazi party) and refused to disconnect one would be considered SP. Miscavige for his own purposes changed that to PERSON and recreated the stupidity of enforced shunning that now characterizes “official” Scn in its confusion.

I used to work at the St. Louis org with another OT VIII who was eventually declared. From the day I learned of the declare order, it struck me as strange. This “SP” went to FLAG & The Freewinds, completed & Attested to achieving OT VIII, in spite of extensive ethics investigations which he passed with flying colors. I had to consider Ocham’s Razor – which applied to this scenario would go something like this: Which is more likely – that the finest EO’s in the world gave an SP a pass all the way to OT VIII, or that the newbie EO at STL who hadn’t even finished his post mini-hat yet was manipulated by someone wanting to shore up the org’s finances?

The Tech is very simple. You handle the SP or you disconnect from him. The purpose is to make sure you are not PTS. That is it. Simple and clear. The Church do not want you to discover their crimes. To achieve that they altered the PTS/SP Technology to confuse you on its application. But if you apply the Standard PTS/SP Tech they will SP declare you. Been there.

We as Scientologist have been crashed and taken our rights away. No Scientologist I know in good standing has never done anything about it. They just need to issue an SP declare and you are out of comm with anybody in good standing. But what means our rights? Not easy to find the definition. It means just entitle to. To do, to be, to have. If you have as guide line only the 12 characteristic to determine if one is an SP. It is hard to spot one, if you do not have the full details at hand. In the Church those 12 attribute are “key” for you and me to determine an SP. But for the Church to determine if one is an SP it is only necessary that you disagree to depart from your rights . You have to watch the person who is taking or trying to take your rights away (what you are entitle to) and make others aware of this phenomena it is faster to spot who is not a good friend of yours and you can handle or disconnect.

“… Church further individuates from a society it wishes to enter and become an integral part of.”

It has been subverted into a parasitic money cult. Seems all media and other statements the church makes are to affect PR internally to prevent members from leaving, keeping the wheel of fortune spinning as long as they can. I don’t think they have been steering in any direction to become a part of society, I suspect they’ll mine it for all it’s worth until the show collapses.

They? Who’s keeping the wheel spinning? Who’s mining it for all it’s worth? Be careful not to generalize. The church has been subverted into a one-man show, as we demonstrate on this website.

Miscavige is not trying to prevent members from leaving. He’s driving them out. The only thing he is trying to prevent is being exposed as a usurper and his power diminished. He keeps pushing for donations so he can purchase and construct spectacular buildings and have something to fool parishioners into thinking that Scientology is expanding. He’s doing this because he either can’t or doesn’t want to further the aims of Scientology through well-done auditing hours and well-trained auditors. Tech is out, whether by design or by poor management. See: http://friendsoflrh.org.

FIFY: Miscavige will keep the scam going until he is fully exposed. His pillars of support are eroding, and they will continued to erode. This is inevitable.

“What do we really have of value in the organizations of Scientology? The only thing we have of value, actually, is Scientology, an understanding of life, increasing ability to communicate, a good concept and grip on reality and the ability to like guys. That’s all you got. When you knock out one of those or degrade one of those, you’ve got less than you had before. You’ve got less organization than you had before. When we drop the various points of the ARC Triangle in their fullest meaning, we drop also the assets of the organization.” Attitude & Conduct of Scientology, 4th London ACC, 3 November 1955.

The true assets of the organization have been dwindling ever since Miscavige seized full control of Scientology organizations. Similarly with well-done auditing hours and well-trained auditors.